Sleepwalkers At Sleepwalk With Me

Sep 2, 2012

Ira writes:

At the 2:00 Chicago show of Sleepwalk, during the Q&A, a woman named Kathleen said she came to the film because the tagline on the poster "A comedy for anyone who's ever had a dream … and then jumped out a window" applied to her. She sleepwalks, she jumped out a third story window in New York. She wasn't hurt in the slightest because she landed on the fire escape that was there. She's never seen a doctor. I asked her if seeing our film — where Mike nearly dies from his sleepwalking — convinced her to see a sleep specialist. Nope. Not even close. So much for the redeeming power of art to affect our lives. She came onstage and we talked about it and I had the audience take photos of her to post at #seesleepwalk on Twitter and Instagram, hoping the peer pressure might convince her to get herself to a doctor. You can see them there. And send your best wishes to her.

Finally I gave her all the money in my wallet and asked her to spend it on a doctor. This is the second young woman at a screening like this. The first was in San Francisco at the Embarcadero Theater. She'd once been stopped by her friend's sister before jumping off a balcony in her sleep. Had never seen a doctor. The film didn't convince her either. I love that our weirdly specific poster tagline got one person into the theater. How many people have had a dream and then jumped out a window? Who knew that this was a market to exploit? That said, since 4% of the population has sleep disorders, we've talked about special 4 a.m. screenings just for them.